


Princess of Aurum

by Bearflame



Category: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brother-Sister Relationships, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Kipo season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24713515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bearflame/pseuds/Bearflame
Summary: Hugo just wanted to hold his sister.A world in which he got what he wanted, at any cost.
Relationships: Kipo Oak & Lio Oak, lio oak & scarlemagne, scarlemagne & Kipo Oak
Comments: 43
Kudos: 433





	1. Ascension

“Let me hold her!” Hugo reached for his sister, but only came away with a scrap of his blanket. Lio had pushed him. His own father had shoved him away and was now staring at him with fear in his eyes.

Hugo looked at the scrap, and at the drops of sweat beading on it. He stood up and faced Lio. With the scrap of fabric balled in his fist and venom in his voice, Hugo spoke.

“So, how long until you get bored of her too then? How long before the next shiny new _experiment_?” he hissed out the last word.

“Hugo that’s not-,” He didn’t get the chance to finish as Hugo hurled the dampened fabric right into his face. 

“I will ask again. Let. Me. Hold. Her.” this time there was no hesitation, and suddenly Hugo was holding Kipo, his baby sister. There was a moment as he looked down at her, crying and reaching for Lio, when he wanted to hate her. But the moment passed quickly, _she_ is not the one who left him behind. 

Hugo watched the frozen form of his father for a moment longer.

“Don’t worry Lio, I’ll take good care of her. We mutes should stick together after all,” With that, Hugo turned leaving his f-, leaving Lio paralyzed behind him. If he was lucky the pheromones would dissipate before the Newton Wolves returned, Hugo did not bother to hope for one outcome or the other.

-

“Hugo, where’d you go? You missed-” the orangutan was cut off as Hugo flung drops of sweat into his face.

“You are no longer the leader of this pack. You’re a subject. My subject.” Hugo strode to the piano as he continued to speak. His speech was riveting if he did say so himself, eventually ending with “And the world will bow before-”

“Hugo?” One of his subjects dared interrupt him. “Hugo what are you talking about? And what the heck are you carrying?”

“First, you will no longer address me as Hugo, I am Scarlemagne now! And second,” He sneered down at his new subjects before lifting the bundle in his arms “This is Kipo, my sister, and your new princess!”

The hesitant looks and lack of applause were not what he wanted, but Scarlemagne was not worried, they would learn quickly.

He brought his sister back down and into his arms. She looked confused but at least she had stopped crying before his grand entrance, a very thoughtful little princess indeed.

She could keep his blanket, he decided. He truly was a magnanimous older brother. Besides, being wrapped in his scent would remind her of who she could _really_ count on in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to continue this but isolation brain says no promises.  
> Also I really love Hugo's backstory, liek if u cri everytim. I'm glad he got at least one Kipo hug in canon. Poor boy needs his sister.


	2. Little Jaguar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo eats donuts and asks questions.

“I don’t care how often he says she ain’t, the kid is _clearly_ human.”

“SHHH! Do you want to get us in trouble?!”

Five year old Kipo crouched further into the shadows as the two voices passed. Her brother's nobles were always saying things like that, and Kipo could see where they were coming from. Besides the color of her skin and hair, she looked exactly like a human.

Her brother generally kept her away from any humans, he said they were dangerous and that they were beneath her anyway. Nonetheless she had seen them in passing a few times and couldn’t help but notice the similarities between them and the face in the mirror.

Once the voices were safely past, Kipo scurried out of hiding with her prize, heading for the music room.

-

Kipo was still eating her pilfered sweets when her brother entered the room.

“Kipo? Where did you get those?” He asked, seeming amused.

“I stole them from the kitchen!” She grinned, and stuffed another bite of donut into her crumb-covered face.

“Stole them? You know the chef would give you anything you ask for right?”

“It was for Jaguar Practice! Jaguars are sneaky, so I’m practicing being sneaky too! Then maybe I’ll be able to transform again like you said I used to!”

“And of course you also get some sweets out of the deal,” He smiled at her and then snatched a pair of mini tarts from Kipo’s pilfered tray.

“Hey! Those are mine!”

“A jaguar would stop me from taking them in the first place.”

Kipo glared at her brother for a bit, before sighing and picking out a tart for herself. “I gueff I’ll share,” She muttered through a mouthful of crust and strawberry.

“How generous of you.” Hugo ruffled Kipo’s hair before sitting opposite her on the floor.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, as they did, Kipo's mind couldn’t help but drift back to what she had heard back in the hallway. Thinking about what the nobles had said sapped her energy, even with her considerable sugar high.

“Now Kipo, nobody is allowed to look that sad while they eat blueberry donuts. What has you making that face?”

Kipo chewed thoughtfully before responding. She didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, even if they weren’t the nicest people, so she chose her words carefully.

“I... Are you sure I’m a mute?”

Hugo looked taken aback, then thoughtful. “Of course you are Kipo, why would you even ask such a thing?”

“It’s just, I look like a human. And no matter how hard I try I can’t get myself to turn into a jaguar. Maybe I can’t do it anymore. Maybe I turned into a human for real.” Hugo had told her about her transformations when she was a baby. Apparently her arms would get huge and furry, with big claws. One of the nobles has a big scar across his nose, and Hugo says it’s from her slashing him while he changed her diaper. But the problem was that Kipo couldn’t _remember_ any of it. She trusted her brother, but the evidence just wasn’t in his favor.

“Kipo, look at me,” as Kipo looked up at her brother she felt droplets hitting her face. He had flicked his sweat at her!

“Gross!”

“Now Kipo, jump up and down while singing about how great I am.” 

“No that’s dumb!” Kipo wiped her face on her sleeve.

Hugo looked smug then.

“But Kipo, if you’re a human then you have no choice. My pheromones will make you do whatever I say.” 

“We both know that doesn’t work on me!” 

“Exactly Kipo! You can’t be human, because if you were, you would be singing and jumping right now. But you aren’t human, or any type of primate for that matter.” He moved to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You my dear, are a jaguar. Looking a bit like a human doesn’t change that.”

Kipo leaned into the hug and took another bite of donut. What he said made sense. She’s glad she talked to Hugo, he was so smart. Her big brother always knew what to say to make things better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote another chapter and a half instead of sleeping. Gotta ride this productivity wave as long as possible!  
> Also if I need to change/add any tags or ratings always feel free to let me know!


	3. Flight of the Mathematician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo goes on her first solo adventure. Everything definitely goes as planned

The flock of mega flamingoes stared down at eleven year-old Kipo in a way that said "we used to be dinosaurs, and are on our way to being dinosaurs again".

Kipo pushed away her anxieties, she was a girl on a mission. The best kind of mission. _A math mission_. She approached the friendliest, and smallest, mega flamingo. 

“Hey there buddy! How would you like to help me go on a li-ittle errand?” Kipo stood on her tiptoes to look the bird in its face... one of its faces. She pulled some sugar cubes out of her pocket and offered a few to each head and then took advantage of the brief goodwill she had earned to clamber onto their back.

“Alright new friends, away to the observatory!” Kipo tugged on the reins, ready to fly. Nothing happened.

“Oh come on you guys! Please?” Kipo tried again. One of the heads turned to look at her disdainfully while the other started cleaning its claws.

“Please please please! The Newton wolves just found a whole library worth of books! There were a bunch of pre-ACT books in there! Do you know what a pre-ACT book is?! It’s full of math! And science! And PRACTICE TESTS!!! If I don’t go ask for one now they’re gonna fill out all the practice tests without me! Jay said he’d save me one but we _all_ know he can’t control himself around algebra! Ple-e-ease just FLY!”

And Kipo got her wish, the mega flamingo launched itself into the air and she flailed and clung to its feathers to avoid being thrown off. 

Once they were well into the air Kipo tried to get her bearings. She had flown with Hugo before but somehow being on her own made it feel like a whole new world. Plus they always took the flaming-car (car-mingo? both are pretty clunky) so she'd never had to focus so much when it came to just staying on.

She finally figured out where she was heading and steered the mega flamingo towards where she remembered the observatory to be.

\--

Kipo estimated she was almost halfway to the observatory when she heard voices below her. She looked down and saw a group of pastelkeets flying a ways below them. 

Pastelkeets are identified mostly by their colorful feathers, paired with light pastel toned clothing. They favored clothes that flowed elegantly when they flew, in contrast to the more utilitarian clothes worn by, say, the hummingbombers. Their crests were also a good identifier when you are on a level with them but are harder to see from above, as Kipo was.

About to call out to the group, Kipo stopped herself when she saw the way they were flying. The colorful bird mutes were circling one area, and occasionally one would dive briefly towards the ground before coming back up and rejoining the others. 

Fishing a pair of binoculars out of her backpack, Kipo trained them on the pastelkeets below, and then a bit ahead of them. They were after... a pig? 

Pastelkeets don’t eat meat, why would they chase a pig? One of the pastelkeets dove down and tried to claw the pig’s back, a mistake.

“HEY!” Kipo hollered and brought the mega flamingo into its own dive. The pastelkeets scattered in their wake as they reached the ground. They landed a bit in front of the pig, who skidded to a stop as it reached them. The group of pastelkeets landed next to them.

“Hey you, what’s the big idea? Go find your own toy!” One of the pastelkeets shoved her way to the front of the group. Her teal feathers were fluffed out and her circular crest was puffed as high as it would go (it looked like a funny hat, which would be rude to mention) but she was still less than half the height of the mega flamingo.

Kipo slid to the ground and stepped between the pastelkeet and the pig, who was hiding her little face in her front hooves.

“What do you mean toy? Why hunt a pig?”

“Cause it’s funny, and we’re bored,” 

“You hurt this innocent pig because you were bored!?” Kipo had never heard such a thing. Sure sometimes Hugo would yell at people... or throw things at them... but he at least had a reason! (even if Kipo didn’t agree with his reasons and thought they were stupid a lot of the time but... but this isn't about him!)

“Well I think you need to find something new to do! That doesn’t involve pig hunting.” Kipo put her foot down, trying to use the strong leader voice that she'd been practicing in the mirror.

“How about human hunting then?” The leader of the pastelkeets smirked at her (as best she could, what with the beak and all). Kipo gulped and stepped back a bit. 

“Wait!” another voice piped up from the flock. A face faintly recognizeable from around the palace moved to the front and whispered to the leader. Kipo took the distraction as an opportunity to check on the pig.

“Hi there little friend, don’t you worry okay? I’m a princess and I’m going to make everything better, just like in those old movies!” She watched the pig as it peeked out at her from behind its (adorable) hooves and blinked with four eyes. Kipo reached out slowly and gently patted the little mute’s head, it seemed to help. 

The voices behind her rose in volume, so Kipo stood back up and faced the pastelkeets. The leader was standing much closer than she had been and seemed to be smiling (once again, the beak makes it really hard to tell).

“My second here just told me who you are. So sorry for the mistake. I didn’t know that Scarlemagne’s little sister could even leave that old mall.” The teal bird stepped even closer to Kipo. “We’ll leave the pig alone now. Here, we can even shake on it.”

Kipo smiled and took hold of the wing being presented to her. “I’m glad you unders- Hey!” the grip on her hand tightened, and the remaining pastelkeets surrounded Kipo. several more grabbed hold of her. The girl struggled and craned her neck around. The pig was gone, panicked squealing from the bushes indicating the direction it had run. Kipo got an arm free from the group and reached futilely towards the mega flamingo. It watched the scene for a moment before finally acting.

The giant pink bird spread its wings, shrieked, and then took to the sky. Kipo and several of the pastelkeets watched as it flew up, and up, and up and... yeah it wasn’t coming back down. _Traitor._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be a much much longer chapter, but in the name of limited free time and tricking myself into not procrastinating so much I am splitting it into three-ish short chapters instead.
> 
> After that I have 1-2 more chapters planned before wrapping this up. I will not leave another fic unfinished for 7 years like my other one dangit!
> 
> Also the pastelkeets are based on crested budgies, highly adorable, I recommend looking at pictures of them and their fluffy little hats.


	4. Gone to the Birds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, Kipo is definitely somewhere. and hopefully she can get somewhere else before she gets in too much trouble
> 
> A continuation of the previous chapter.

Well this day did not go as planned. Kipo was sitting in a gigantic nest, far from both home and the observatory, she was surrounded by a group of mutes that was clearly less loyal to her brother than they always claimed to be at meetings, and she still didn’t have her math book!

Kipo sighed and sat still. Hopefully Hugo would find her soon, her shoulders hurt from having her wrists tied. She resolutely ignored the voice in her head asking how he would find her when he didn’t even know she had left. It was Hugo, he always fixed things.

With nothing else to do, Kipo listened in on the birds that were guarding her. 

“I still can’t believe Scarlemagne would let his pet human run around unsupervised like that.” an orange pastelkeet said to her other guard.

“Seriously, how does a guy gain that much power with a weakness like this just gallivanting around?” This was the pastelkeet Kipo had seen around the palace. He was entirely pink and she had always wondered if it would be rude to ask for some of his old feathers for arts and crafts. 

“I always knew he was bonkers. Keeping a human and calling it his sister? That’s nuts.” 

“He can get away with being crazy, he’s got all those humans and monkeys under his command that everybody is too scared to try anything,” Kipo resisted the urge to explain that monkey and primate are not synonyms. He didn’t deserve the science. Actually wait no, everyone deserves science. Dangit, Kipo didn’t have time for a conflict between her anger and her morals.

“Except for us.”

“Except for us, once we let the mandrill know we have his weird purple human we can get whatever we want from the guy.”

Ugh, listening to these... these... jerkfaces wasn’t helping. If only Kipo had literally anything else to do. She looked around for something to help her escape, or at least to distract her from the conversation going on at the edge of the nest. She tried pushing around the twigs beneath her with the toes of her shoes, but her motion was limited, and damaging the integrity of the nest that was keeping her in the tree was probably not a good idea to pursue. Thoughts of falling made Kipo shudder.

Apparently she had been quite the climber when she was younger. Hugo loved to tell her the story of the time she got stuck on the inside edge of the palace’s big glass dome. It was after she had stopped transforming, so nobody was sure how she had made it that far up. Everyone was too scared of frightening her into falling to approach, so Hugo had to climb up himself to get her. 

As joking as his tone was whenever he told the story, he was very scared for her at the time. It always brought weird feelings of humour and guilt for Kipo. She never wanted to scare her brother like that again, but it looked like she was going to once the pastelkeets got their demands together and he found out what had happened.

Too bad Kipo hadn’t stuck with climbing, maybe there was a world where she did and she would have been able to get down from here. But there was never any reason to climb at home, and Hugo had put a stop to it anyway after the dome incident.

That’s when she heard the sound of snuffling. It was on the opposite side of the nest from where the two guards perched, still going on about how much stuff they were gonna get from Hugo, and looking outwards, away from Kipo. Clearly they did not see her as a threat, and between the sheer height of the tree and her bound limbs, they were probably right. They’d probably be right to think that even if she wasn’t bound to be honest.

Kipo scooted towards the sound as quietly as she could. She glanced over the edge of the nest, (oof that was a high one right there) and saw the pig!

The teal pig shuffled her way into the nest, and hid so Kipo was between her and the guards, just as the pink one turned their way.

“Hey you! Stay in the middle! You’re not worth anything splattered on the dirt!”

Kipo nodded and scooted back to the middle of the nest, slowly so that the pig was able to stay hidden behind her. Once she was back in the center the pastelkeets went back to chatting, faced away, prepared for an outside attack but pretty much ignoring Kipo.

Once they seemed occupied, Kipo turned towards her new friend. “You came back for me,” she whispered.

The pig rubbed her forehead against Kipo’s arm before turning to the girl’s bonds. She bit through the ropes holding Kipo’s hands, freeing them. Kipo untied her ankles herself before she realized the conundrum she was in. She wasn’t sure how the pig made it up the tree but it probably wasn’t something Kipo could mimic.

If only the mega flamingo hadn’t abandoned them. Kipo looked up hoping for a last minute miracle, but clearly she was not living in the Lord of The Rings. No giant bird would be coming to their rescue. Dang it.

She paused, and glanced at the still distracted guards. If Kipo couldn’t fly herself, maybe she could borrow someone else’s wings for a couple of minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I finally got the chance to watch season 3!!!! So good! But also now it's over and I'm sad, and also sad about the ending but in a good way. Some of the choices the writers made made me sad but not in a way that I disagree with them if that makes sense? I see why they made the choices they made and despite being sad I like the ending very much. And a little sadness is nice in an ending.(I'm trying not to give spoilers but that makes it harder to express my feelings clearly. sorry)
> 
> Anyway it's 2:10 AM but I was inspired to get this chapter out, it's short but I can't stay awake any longer. Maybe tomorrow I'll go through and edit this some more but I'm too hyped but also tired to do that now. (probably gonna edit these notes too, I've gotten ramble-y.
> 
> Happy season 3!!!!!!!!


	5. Now or Never

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo has several bad ideas to get out of her current situation. But a bad idea is better than no idea right?

“AAAAHHHH!!!!!” Kipo and the guard she had tackled (the orange one) were plummeting to the ground. This was not quite the plan. Kipo had pictured more of a glide when they went over the edge of the nest.

As they fell Kipo managed to keep the guard below her, she’d been hoping that he would be able to take control and fly, right up until he passed out. What kind of bird is that afraid of falling?! Or maybe he had gotten concussed along the way? Either way, he was not going to be helping anytime soon.

The pig squealed from where she clung to Kipo’s back, she had to do something! In an adrenaline fueled haze, she was able to see the individual tree branches as they fell past, if she could just reach out and...

Their momentum halted. Kipo hung on one of the tree’s wide branches by one arm, the pig clinging to her back and the rude pastelkeet guard in her other arm. Kipo knew her arm was almost certainly dislocated after taking that much pressure, and at the speed they had been going, but it felt fine. Probably shock. 

Kipo deposited the pastelkeet on a branch that was directly below them, before dropping onto it herself. She was clearly still on an adrenaline high if her extra clear vision and heightened hearing were anything to go by. It was wild, Kipo had never had a significant adrenaline high before. The scariest thing she could remember doing was, well, stealing the mega flamingo earlier that day, but before that it had been minor pastry heists and occasionally pranking palace visitors.

In a more perfect world, she would have had a few moments to compose herself and make a plan for getting down, but today continued to not be Kipo’s day.

The other pastelkeet guard, the one she had known from Hugo’s meetings, dove at Kipo from above. She cried out and tried to swat at it, expecting nothing but futile hand flapping followed by capture. She didn’t expect to connect.

The pastelkeet shrieked as he was batted away, and Kipo stared at him, then at her arm, then at- her aRM?!

Kipo's arm was covered in fur from at least the base of her sleeve, probably up to her shoulder if the tingling sensation was in fact the feeling of fur rubbing against fabric. At the ends of her, now shorter?, fingers were black claws, they must have helped her grip the branch. The whole arm was also longer than it had been, not by much but enough to notice, and to hit that pastelkeet. 

“Wait a feather-pulling minute! Since when can you do any of that?! And what is wrong with your arm!?” The pastelkeet she had hit had recovered and was clinging to a branch to Kipo’s right, out of reach. 

Kipo ignored him, instead running her non-clawed hand along the fur on her arm, entranced. Jaguar fur! It was everything she had been dreaming of since she was a child. And she couldn’t even take a minute to enjoy it apparently, because the guard she had tackled initially chose that moment to wake up.

“Wha- where am I? What happened?” The previously unconscious guard was clearly still dazed.

“The prisoner is escaping!” Traitorbird shrieked, clearly still trying to stay out of reach of Kipo, while also getting closer to the other guard.

That dragged Kipo out of her fascinated petting (of herself... is that weird? She’d have to ask Hugo later). She carefully scootched her feet, getting closer to the trunk of the tree and further from the orange and annoyingly awake pastelkeet.

“Hey stop that!” He shouted at her. He had rallied quickly. He began to cautiously approach Kipo.

“Good idea!” The pink traitor said. “You keep her here and I’ll go get backup!”

“Whoa wait what?!” Orange turned to his fellow guard but he was already gone. Good to know he was a self-serving jerk with everyone, and not just her and her brother.

If backup really was coming then it was now or never. Kipo had to get the rest of the way down and fast.

“Hold on piggy, I have a terrible idea!” Kipo didn’t give the pig on her back, or more importantly, the guard, time to react before she leapt off the branch she had been standing on.

The pig squealed and Kipo couldn’t help but scream too as they fell, though whether it was fear or adrenaline is something experts have yet to confirm. Like before she could see all of the branches as they flew past them. Kipo reached out and, again like before, grabbed a branch and brought them to a halt. Without the weight of an unconscious pastelkeet it was even easier!

The poor pig was clearly terrified, but they didn’t have the luxury of a break. The remaining guard was in hot pursuit, and the other one could be back at any minute, with company. Kipo steeled herself, and let go of the branch.

Several drops and catches later, they made it to the ground. The poor pig was completely stunned at this point, Kipo would have to make it up to her once they were safe. 

She sprinted from the base of the gigantic tree towards a stand of (comparatively) small pines. Kipo hoped that the cover from above would make her harder to see and attack from the air. 

Her pig friend was still stunned, but she was stunned and holding on. That’s what mattered right now.

Kipo crushed pine needles under her feet as she reached the treeline. The smell of pines was more intense than anything she’d ever experienced. Was it her reawakened powers? Or just regular old adrenaline? What Kipo would give to be able to stop and run some tests right now.

Kipo heard the sound of wings above her. Probably Orange. She listened as hard as she could but couldn’t tell if that backup had arrived yet..

She nearly ran straight into a tree because she was too focused on listening. She skidded around it just in time to avoid a broken nose and a delay she couldn’t afford. That time she was pretty sure it was boosted reflexes that saved her, it was a very close call.

Kipo took a fairly straight path between the pines and listened towards the sky again. Since when could she direct her hearing? Did her ears change too? Kipo wanted a mirror so bad! A mirror, some time, maybe some writing materials for notes...

But now she was certain that Orange had been alone before, because the sound of wingbeats had increased exponentially in the last minute or so. Backup had arrived, and Kipo was not liking her chances. She put everything she had into running and hoped it would be enough to save them both.

Kipo stumbled as she hit the edge of a clearing. It was far too exposed, she needed to get back to the relative safety of the thick forest. But when she turned to retreat she saw something, something pink.

“This is where you went?!” Kipo yelled, forgetting any need for stealth. The mega flamingo didn’t even look at her, picking at its claws with two giant beaks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who didn't die? I'm as surprised as you are.
> 
> In seriousness though, I got a new job and it's been a LOT. Also this chapter did not want to happen. My IRL friend can attest to how much time i spent staring at the words [chase scene goes here] on my document. But it's here! Next chapter should be the last one btw. It'll be a shorter one but it'll exist, and this fic will be complete, and I will keep my promise of not leaving it unfinished for 7 years. (even if this last year has felt that long...)


End file.
